Pollution offences below public expectations

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-10 17:33

More than 8,000 Chinese enterprises have been penalized for pollution offences in the first eight months of this year, but the vice director of China's environmental watchdog believes the results are "far below" the expectations of the public.

Pan Yue, vice director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said that four large-scale investigations into polluters had been carried out from 2005 and offenders had been penalized, including the closure of 12 major projects that "seriously violated" environmental protection regulations.

Pan refused to be drawn on whether or not the government's "green credit policy" could be classified as a success or a failure.

The policy was introduced in July in which SEPA regularly hands over lists of heavy polluters to the People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Based on the information, companies that fail to pass environmental assessments, or to implement China's environmental protection regulations, are disqualified from getting loans from any bank or financial institution.

"It is too early to say whether the green credit loan policy is successful or not," said Pan.

"China's environmental issues are very complicated and cannot be solved by one or two policies," he said.

There has been a shift in the style of punishments doled out by SEPA to polluters in recent years. Long-term restrictions designed to affect the way businesses operate are now favored over one-off fines.